About

Exeter Community Initiatives (ECI) is a registered charity and limited company that was set up in 1993 as a partnership between the churches and the wider community, in order to promote social inclusion through community development. 

We aim to improve the quality of life for people and communities in the Exeter area in order to increase their self-esteem, confidence and skills. 

In this section there is information about our background and track record, together with ECI’s aims, areas of work, priorities and sources of funding. Click here for the latest ECI leaflet.

What does ECI Do?

Exeter Community Initiatives (ECI) promotes social inclusion by enabling individuals and developing communities. It aims to improve the quality of life for people and communities in the Exeter area in order to increase their self-esteem, confidence and skills through:

• managing, delivering, and facilitating community projects/activities which provide practical and emotional support to disadvantaged individuals and groups;
• identifying, developing, facilitating and implementing new projects/activities in response to unmet need;
• promoting, enabling and undertaking community development work;
• challenging and addressing the causes of social exclusion.

It achieves these aims through managing community projects such as:

• The PORCH Project - a housing and support scheme for persistent offenders which aims to reduce re-offending;
• Supporting Community Development in Exeter (SCDE) which supports community groups in disadvantaged areas of the city;
• Flying Start Children's Centre which improves the quality of life and opportunities for children in central Exeter through working with local families, groups and agencies to enable the provision of a range of support services;
• Homelessness Collaboration Project which helps organisations that provide services to homeless people, to work more effectively together;
• Beacon Heath Community Project which aims to support local people and community groups in this part of Exeter.

How do we work?

The way we work, or our values, are as important to us as what we actually do. Indeed for a social inclusion and development agency, the two are inextricably linked. We aim to work in the following ways:

• As part of an inclusive culture, which works in partnership with others to identify the most appropriate ways of responding to need and challenging social exclusion
• By emphasising the value of individuals and the importance of developing their potential
• By supporting the development of independent projects and initiatives where possible
• By promoting Equal Opportunities and challenging discrimination
• Through respecting the importance of ecology and the environment to personal and social well-being
• With a professional approach involving the provision of quality services and organisational practice
• Through a recognition of the importance of proper research, and the need for regular monitoring and evaluation of our work
• Through an acknowledgement of our Christian roots as part of the recognition of the wider spiritual dimension in all our work.

Who do we work with to achieve our aims?

ECI works with a wide range of partners including local people, local faith communities, community groups and organisations, the Council for Voluntary Service and other voluntary sector bodies, statutory agencies, business and local partnership bodies including Exeter Social Health and Inclusion Partnership and the Community Safety Partnership. These partners are represented on the various project committees and steering groups that oversee different aspects of our work.

What are our overall priorities for future work?

ECI will seek to achieve its aims through focusing on the following overall priorities:

1. Support local communities and groups to help them engage in a community development process to tackle social exclusion.
2. Promote and enable a community development approach to tackling social exclusion at a strategic level within Exeter.
3. Manage and develop existing projects to respond to the changing needs of the local community.
4. Identify, develop and implement new community projects in response to needs identified (or contribute to their identification, development and implementation).
5. Ensure the continued improvement of our internal systems and procedures to enable the highest standards of service delivery possible within the constraints of the resources available to us.

In order to implement these overall priorities, we have developed a set of specific priorities for the three year period from April 2008
– see our Three Year Strategy for more details.

How is ECI Funded?

We have an annual turnover of about £500,000 and receive funding from a wide range of organisations and individuals. These include the Big Lottery, the Learning & Skills Council, the City Council, the Primary Care Trust, the Home Office, charitable trusts, local churches and many individual donations through our Share Scheme. This Share Scheme provides an opportunity for local people to ‘share’ in the development work of the charity through making a regular contribution, ideally over five years, with each Share costing £50 per year. Click here for more details of the Share Scheme. For more information about specific funders during the last financial year please see our latest Annual Review.

How is ECI managed?

Each project has its own project committee made up of volunteers, local people and professionals. New projects in development are managed by a project steering group. Each project committee has two representatives on the ECI Council, which is the legal body responsible for the overall management of the charity. Members of the ECI Council are the trustees and company directors.

Major projects usually employ a project manager who is responsible for the management of staff within that project. Across the organisation, the Project Development Manager is responsible for developing new initiatives and identifying unmet needs, the Community Development Manager for support for local community groups, and the Director for managing existing projects and the overall strategic direction of the organisation. Central to our work are over 100 volunteers supporting different projects and committees throughout the organisation.

When and why was ECI set up?

ECI, formerly known as Exeter Community Umbrella Ltd (ECU), was set up in 1993 as a registered charity and company limited by guarantee to provide an umbrella charity for local community projects working in Exeter. At that time, Palace Gate Project (a community and project development agency set up by local churches in 1991) was initiating a number of church-related and other community work initiatives across Exeter which had no proper legal framework or overall structure to relate to. The Exeter Diocesan Board for Christian Care (a church social action agency) organised a meeting between a group of people representing some of these different initiatives to plan the development of an umbrella organisation.

The organisation revised its statement of purpose, aims and priorities and changed its name to Exeter Community Initiatives on 1st July 2002 to more actively reflect the pro-active development role it plays within Exeter.

When ECI was set up, three already-existing projects became part of the umbrella. These were Palace Gate Project, Turntable Furniture Project and Exeter Homes Committee (a rent and deposit guarantee scheme).

What has been achieved so far?

Since 1991 when Palace Gate Project was set up, the following are some of the highlights of what has been achieved by Palace Gate Project (until 1993), and later all the projects of ECI:

• 7 major new projects established as part of ECI (Turntable Furniture, Exeter Homes Committee, St Petrock’s Centre, St Sidwell’s Centre, PORCH Project, Flying Start Children's Centre and Farm Hill/Kinnerton Way Project)
• 2 other major projects established as sub-projects of Palace Gate Project (Palace Gate Counseling Service and Exeter Homemaker Project)
• 6 projects supported to become independent of ECI (Exeter Homes Committee, St Petrock’s Centre, Exeter Homemaker Project, Turntable Furniture Project, Palace Gate Counseling Service and St Sidwells Centre)
• Over 100 other local community groups, initiatives or networks supported
• 839 households helped to gain tenancies by Exeter Home’s Committee’s rent deposit scheme
• Over 1,300 people have received counseling
• 17 partnership initiatives established with our support and involvement (including Clothes Store, Drop-In Service, Christmas Care, Elderly Day Care, Clothes Voucher Scheme, Exeter Credit Union, LINKS Project, Meaningful Occupation Project, Devon Furniture Forum, Diverted Giving Scheme, Exeter SMART Move, etc)
• 470 households supported in maintaining their tenancies through Exeter Homemaker Project
• Over 30,000 food vouchers issued to help homeless people get a good meal without begging
• Over 2,500 homeless people have been provided with food, clothing, nursing support, advice, training and help with accommodation as part of over 115,000 individual client sessions at St Petrock’s
• Over 600 families on low incomes each year have been provided with furniture at Turntable